Cirrus down Gundaroo, 06/10/23
 

From the ABC:
Both FA & FR24 show VH-MSF, a Cirrus planned YSCB-YARM in the area at the time, and in a rapid descent from ~9,000 in the vicinity, and failing to reappear. Whoever it was, hopefully they've been able to walk away from it, but it doesn't sound promising...:(

EDIT:Added photos from onthesceneACT.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....21356cb151.jpg

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....afb05b8f0f.jpg

Channel 10 news is saying there are no survivors.

DF

[[color=#333333]Looks like pancaked from vision I can see, could shute been deployed?
Or is there slide marks across the road?

It's about 3 km from my strip. Deepest condolences.

Very sad.

Last radio call to departures was ops normal.

FR suggests 12,000fpm descent rate at <120 knots.

It’s a G1 and they have a one piece wing.

It sounds catastrophic.

There's nothing left to investigate . It looks like the remains of an ancient campfire.

Yes. If you weren't told it was the scene of an aircraft crash it would be hard to know what it was.

DF.

I thought they had a ballistic chute

They do.
Still need to deploy it in (relative) reasonable conditions.

Icing?

They're supposed to! Which makes this one strange. Looking at FA and the recent flights, they've all been filed at set 1000's in altitudes, not Alt+500, indicative of routine operations under the IFR.

Latest news reports are saying a pilot + 3 kids on board, too. :mad:

FZL per the 0500-1100Z GAF was listed as 8000'N / 5000'S for the area, with BKN CU/SC5000/10000. Possible...
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....80c55f53f5.jpg

FR shows maintaining groundspeed in low fpm descent at time 20231006 03:47 UTC after reaching top of climb, then followed by slowing groundspeed with increasingly rapid descent. Explanations?

Looks like something catastrophic happened. KMZ and CSV from RealTraffic - Fly with real air traffic attached.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....895ce9f042.png

Worse…..grandpa took three of the grandkids out for a School holiday blast.

https://www.news.com.au/national/at-...be08567f2f00e5


the flight profile is heartbreaking…


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....88adf11198.png

Some observations:

From flightaware - Flight out of Canberra shows straight tracking upto 7800’ (1013 datum) then tracking looks handflown.



On the way down, at 7300’ (1013 datum) the ROD is 9811 at around 80° angle of depression. 18 seconds later the ROD at 3550’ (1013 datum) is reduced 41% to 5714 fpm at an 83° angle of depression.

Maybe an evil thought…

No mayday and no chute. Quite unusual. Incapacitation?

Hate to think it right.

It's a bit hard to imagine incapacitation leading to that sort of flight profile unless it was a seizure or something causing a total lockup on the controls. I'd think even with someone slumped over the stick (which doesn't seem very likely with a Cirrus sidestick anyway) the aerodynamic forces involved would eventually shallow the descent out a bit. You would assume he would have shown the kids how to operate the parachute too in case he suddenly keeled over.

Autopilot on VS climb. Heart attack or similar. Young children not understanding anything about the aircraft or 'chute. Stall. Descent to terrain. :(